Tennesseefree.com

Interesting discussion over at Aunt B’s place.

A noose is a threat. In conjunction with a truck full of Confederate Battle Flags and a white supremacist driving it around? It’s a threat.

Tennessee State Code says that it’s a crime to engage in any activity that “injures or threatens to injure or coerces another person with the intent to unlawfully intimidate another because that other exercised any right or privilege secured by the constitution or laws of the United States or the constitution or laws of the state of Tennessee.”

Read the whole thing.

First off, I am pretty sure that the incident she is writing about happened on school grounds. If that is the case, then this is not a free speech issue. Whether it is considered a threat or not, if the school says no nooses, then the rule is no nooses.

But let’s assume that it is not on school grounds, but merely hanging from a pickup truck cruising downtown. Sure, it’s a pretty immature and crappy thing to do. But does it really constitute a threat? I don’t think so. Sure it is a symbol of bigotry, but a rope is not a threat.

One of the commenters mentioned how you don’t see Nazi symbols in Germany because they are outlawed. By the way, it is also against the law in Germany to say that the holocaust did not happen.

Is that the way we want America to be? God, I hope not. Keep electing modern liberals though and that is probably what you’ll get. After all, do they not admire places like Germany and wish we were more like those countries? The freedom to speak and express yourself, ever how offensive, is sacred in America. You don’t have a right to harm another human being or truly threaten somebody. But in America, you do have the right to be as racist and stupid as you want to be.

Do we really want to infringe on all of our civil liberties, in order to stick it to a small minority of idiots? Some people do I guess. Do you?

Southern Beale is smarter than she looks.

I don’t understand why the Federal Reserve continues to lower interest rates to deal with this issue. Lowering interest rates only makes things worse by devaluing the dollar, making the price of foreign made imports (*cough*cough*oil*cough*cough*) more expensive, which then makes everything else more expensive. It’s a vicious cycle.

Sounds a lot like what I wrote in this post.

Meanwhile, guess what the Fed did today.

As I said in my last post, technically this is not a recession. But I personally would not have a problem with a recession. I would rather see this economy stop growing for a little while, than create a long term problem with inflation. The price of oil is directly tied to the strength of the dollar. Pumping more money into the economy is not what we need right now. We need less money in the economy. Hopefully, this is the last Federal Funds Rate cut, before they come to their senses.

At least not yet. Even if the economy had receded last quarter, it still would not have qualified as a recession. That’s because in order to be a recession, there has to be two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

I am reminded of this excellent post I wrote at Music City Bloggers last October that caused a whole bunch of liberals to wet their pants and demand I be silenced.

I don’t know if it is due to misinformation presented by the media, or if it is has to do with people not knowing the definition of a recession, but something is definitely wrong with the average American.

I hate to be condescending, but for all of you who do not know, a recession is two or more successive quarters of negative economic growth. We haven’t seen negative economic growth in the United States in more than six years.

You know it really scares me to think that 46 out of every 100 Americans do not know the definition of a recession. It especially scares me knowing that these people have the right to vote. I am surprised that they are able to feed themselves, much less drive an automobile or go to the grocery story. I hate to sound like an asshole, but good grief, A RECESSION!

Now after reading it, I am sure I am about to get lots of anecdotal “evidence” and sad stories. But it doesn’t matter. Words have meanings and this isn’t a recession.

Hardcore Obama supporters never cease to amaze me. Take this from GoldnI for example.

I wish we had a media that held other candidates to the same standards that they hold Senator Obama.

Now I remember what college was like, and based on that amazing statement, one can only assume that she typed it after doing a monster bong hit. Not only is it obvious that the media chose Obama over Senator Clinton, but as long as I can remember, I have never seen the news media so biased toward one candidate in the Democratic Primary. Never.

I wish that someone would ask John McCain why, if he does not believe that the Catholic Church is a whore or that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves, would he actively pursue the nomination of someone who does believe all of that.

The idiotic comparison of Obama’s relationship to his pastor of twenty years, his mentor, and McCain’s non-relationship to some TV preacher that he was endorsed by, but probably never even met, is stupid. It isn’t even close to the same thing, but even if it was, and it surely isn’t, is that the way you defend your candidate now? It’s like saying “yes he sucks, but the other guy does too.”

Obama is, wrongly or not, held to a higher standard than the other two candidates.

Once again, is she out of her mind? Obama is not held to up to higher standard than anybody. MSNBC practically has a group Obama-asm every night. Put down the bong there GoldnI.

According to this story, police arrested 400,000 people for carrying small amounts of pot in New York City during last ten years.  400,000! Good grief. Can you imagine how costly that was to the city?
Listen to Peter Tosh.

…inspired by a comment on, you guessed it, Protein Wisdom.

#47Comment by LiveFromFortLivingRoom on 4/29 @ 2:27 pm #

I think this could be summed up better as Obama’s Macacca moment.

As you recall, the ‘Macaca moment‘ came during the 2006 Virginia Senate race between George Allen and Jim Webb. Allen used the term ‘macaca’ to describe a Webb troll who was lurking in his thread. Actually

“On August 16, 2006, the National Journal reported that two Virginia Republicans who heard the word used by Allen’s campaign staff said macaca was a neologism created from mohawk and caca, Spanish and French slang for excrement. The National Journal quoted a Republican close to the campaign saying, “In other words, [Sidarth] was a shit-head, an annoyance.”

An apt description for a troll, I’d say.

Also blogging Baracky’s dwarf-tossing is intraweb favorite Iowahawk, with “Dear Barry”, the Illinois senator who answers those tough relationship questions…such as questions about lover “Jeremiah” and his propensity for interrupting classy social events by “goose-stepping into the rec room in his black leather swastika thong and riding crop, screaming “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer!!” You’ll have to follow up on that one.

I’m ready for the next salvo from the Retired Reverend Wright. But it seems he could have taken the hint…after all, when you get a million-dollar mansion bought and paid for by Church funds, you should just take the hint and relax. Not meddle in your better’s bidness.

Reverend Wright is just lucky he’s not messing with Hillary. Vince, and all that…

Brian of Six Meat Buffet has written an excellent post on Reverend Wright.

Sadly, the majority of black people believe every word he said. It’s what’s taught in their homes. It’s what’s taught in their churches and you would be hard pressed to find black teachers (at a collegiate level) who would disagree.

If this is an attack on the black church it is one that is long overdue. The black church is a host to a cancer in need of irradiating sunlight.

Please read the whole thing. I especially liked that excerpt though. At some point, this country has to have a discussion about how bigoted black people generally tend to be. And don’t give me any excuses for their bigotry. There is no excuse, regardless of what happened to their grandfathers.

Black people are voting in large numbers for Obama over Clinton, for one reason and one reason only. Because he is black. That’s it. You know it. I know it. Every freaking body knows it. So why is it so hard to say it?

I wrote about this subject a while back in a post titled, “Blacks Support Obama, In Spite Of The Fact That He is More White Than Me”. You should have seen the response after Brittney linked me at NIT. The libs were foaming at their keyboards and spitting all over their monitors.

Finally, somebody is calling on the Fed to strengthen the dollar.

When Federal Reserve governors meet today, they should consider that solutions to their twin challenges – a flagging economy and systemic moral hazard in financial markets – have common roots in a stable dollar. One of the primordial lessons of economic history is that sound money is a necessary condition to promote long-run prosperity and maximal growth. Moreover, a stable currency and low inflation lessen the need for complex hedging vehicles which can be leveraged to harmful effect in volatile markets.

Will Bernanke and the spineless Fed have the political will (even though they are supposed to be non-political) to stop this easy money nonsense, tank the US economy, and begin raising the Federal Funds Rate? I doubt it. I wish I could be more optimistic, but Bernanke has proven himself to be a disgrace.

Bring back Paul Volcker.

When I heard Rev. Wright speak yesterday about the “different learning styles” of black people, the true definition of racism was the first thought that came into my mind.

Except for maybe love, there isn’t another word in the English language misused more often than racism. More often than not, when people say racism or racist, they should be using the word bigot. You might say this is splitting hairs and that it doesn’t matter, but I think it matters a lot. Why? Because if you really know what the word means, then you will know that the biggest racists in the United States today are liberals.

George Will said it best today.

On Monday, Wright also espoused the racialist doctrine that blacks have “different” learning styles than do others. This doctrine of racially different brains, or of an unalterably different black culture, is a doctrine today used to justify various soft bigotries of low expectations regarding blacks, and especially black children. It has a long pedigree as a rationalization for injustices. Slaveholders and, later, segregationists loved it.

The main thing that conservatives like me are guilty of, in regards to the issue of race, is that we treat black people as if they are equals. We treat them as if they are just as capable as anybody else. We treat them as if they have the ability to learn and prosper just like anybody else. Modern liberalism is opposed to this, because in order to survive, there must be victims, there must be a downtrodden group that is easily identifiable.

I disagree with people like Reverend Wright because I have the audacity to believe that black children can accomplish just as much as white children. I have the audacity to believe that they are equal. Obviously Reverend Wright disagrees with me, and so do most white elitist, guilt ridden, liberals. Otherwise, how could they justify their bigotry of low expectations.

A NYT op-ed by David Brooks asserts that now, a new social divide exists in this country. Unlike Hirsh’s column on ’southernism,’ Brooks asserts the educational division has widened, creating a demographic that transcends region, race, income and even political party.

In those days [55 yrs ago], the owner of the local bank lived in the same town as the grocery clerk, and their boys might play on the same basketball team. Only 7 percent of adult Americans had a college degree. But that’s all changed. In the decades since, some social divides, mostly involving ethnicity, have narrowed. But others, mostly involving education, have widened. Today there is a mass educated class. The college educated and non-college educated are likely to live in different towns. They have radically different divorce rates and starkly different ways of raising their children. The non-college educated not only earn less, they smoke more, grow more obese and die sooner.

Brooks cites a deep cultural gap within the Democratic Party:

Barack Obama has won densely populated, well-educated areas. Hillary Clinton has won less-populated, less-educated areas. For example, Obama has won roughly 70 percent of the most-educated counties in the primary states. Clinton has won 90 percent of the least-educated counties. This social divide has overshadowed regional differences. Sixty-year-old, working-class Catholics vote the same, whether they live in Fresno, Scranton, Nashua or Orlando.

Personally, I think he is ignoring the elephant in the room… in regard to Obama, racism is more a factor with the less educated and the older generation. Of course conservatives by their very nature resist change and this would seem reason enough to eliminate any candidate not a conservative white Christian man.

I think it goes far deeper than education. I just had a long discussion about this with one of my few conservative colleagues at the college, an educated person. He claims to be a ‘converted liberal.’ He said a conservative is a former liberal now that has two kids in a post 9/11 world. He spouted the usual GOP fear stuff about jihad and the evils of Islam but apparently had no clue of the Pentagon propaganda scandal (never reported on Drudge or Fox News - of course!) or the recent GAO report that deemed the Bush war on terror a failure. I did leave one essential element out of the description of this colleague. He is a fairly devoted Christian having spent his life south of the Mason-Dixon line.

My point is that most conservatives tend to be religious people that have kids, whether college educated or not. This is true particularly in the south. Many of these people, regardless of education, simply suffer from a lack of knowledge. This is in part due to their choice of media or disinterest in being aware of what is going on in their government. Any failures or abuses of power by the Bush administration are overshadowed by a fear-born authoritarian loyalty to a president, still perceived as moral Christian warrior - which trumps any and all failings. Really amazing, isn’t it?

Check out this graphic I found at Ben Cunningham’s blog.

Sure it is voluntary, but it is still a regressive tax. If the voluntary part justifies it for you, then why shouldn’t the state invest in crack rock and sell it on the corners. After all, the people who buy it, do it voluntarily.

Egalia is right when she says that Hillary would “make mincemeat” out of Obama in a Lincoln/Douglas style debate. Just go back and look at some past debates. Obama gets flustered. Anytime he is forced to speak about anything substantive, or heaven forbid attacked, he starts stuttering.

As detestable as Hillary’s socialism is, you have to respect the old girl’s nastiness and tenacity. I’d much rather have Hillary back me up in a barfight than Sissy Obama. He’d probably run off crying.

Heh! Sean Braisted when discussing Reverend Wright says, “the more he speaks the better”. Sounds good to me Sean. In fact, I think the Obama campaign should put this guy out front to be heard as often as possible.

Nathan Moore also offers his opinion on Reverend Wright’s most recent ramblings. Nathan’s observations are a lot closer to a little world called reality. Perhaps he could introduce Sean to this place. But maybe not. After all, we Republicans do have a vested interest in the continued stupidity of Democrats.

Sadly though, the best the GOP could do this time is McCain, who is still lining up against members of his own party, while refusing to criticize the eventual Democratic nominee. At least he did finally admit that Obama’s associations are a legitimate political issue.

Hopefully, the 527’s, which McCain opposes, but helped to create, will go ahead and do their good work, in spite of McCain’s embarrassing condemnations. McCain needs to understand that this isn’t about him. It’s about beating the Marxist, and then when that happens and McCain is inaugurated, we will direct our sights on him.

We’ll then see how much President McCain likes Republican “mavericks”. My guess is not so much. In fact, he’ll probably break something.

Yes, the Democrats in Tennessee are at it again. Should we be surprised? I mean they are Democrats after all.

From Stacey Campfield:

Tom Humphreys digs out the dirt on the omnibus corrections bill and finds what may be up to $20,000,000.00 or more in new taxes. Included in the new taxes are increases in the tax on some food, increases in taxes on small farmers (Dave Oatney should love this one), increases in Taxes on small business and many others.

Seems like Tennessee Democrats love them some regressive taxation.

In other news, Bill Hobbs is reporting that the Democratic front-runner for Governor supports, you guessed it, a state income tax. Of course.

…”where Hollywood meets Washington“.

Craig Ferguson, emcee, had the best lines…

“Vice President Cheney “is already moving out of his residence. It takes longer than you think to pack up an entire dungeon;” about the “feud” between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann: “What I see is sexual tension;” and at The New York Times who stayed away from this year’s dinner: “They felt that this event undercuts the credibility of the press. It’s funny, you see, I thought that Jayson Blair and Judy Miller took care of that…Shut the hell up, New York Times, you sanctimonious whining jerks!”

[emboldenings mine]

His best he saved for last. Craig is a new American Citizen (obeyed the law and established procedure, he did) and said this to the news corp in particular, and to all of us Americans in general…

“Please, never, ever, ever agree with each other. Never stop arguing, never stop fighting. You cranky, magnificent bastards.”

I don’t think he’ll have to worry much about that.

Amanda Marcotte’s new book “It’s a Jungle Out There” is causing much internal strife amongst feminists. Because of the ‘40 era comic book imagery used, both on the cover and inside the book. Supposedly racist, sexist, and every politically correct -ist and -ism you can imagine. Amanda is being savaged on feminazi blogs across the spectrum.

Don’t you hate it when leftists eat their own? ;D

Go see the book’s internal images (taken in a bookstore, obviously) here. I could post them, but won’t. They aren’t in color, and each has a big, fat thumb (sloppy technique, that) holding the book open.

Seal Press, the book’s publisher, has keeled over with a public apology. Amanda Marcotte has another. Feminist blogs are screaming bloody kotex murder.

Jeff Goldstein has an excellent essay up. Classic Goldstein. You’ll have to visit there and read it.

Hilarity ensues.

I can only approve…and enjoy!

Oh, and this…saving their nuts for a Sunday….

As Bush/Cheney and the neo-cons engage in sabre rattling over Iran, Republican Senator Peter Hoekstra [R-MI] offers a voice of reason. In yesterday’s Washington Post article, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the US is planning for “potential military courses of action” as one of several options against Iran.

Considering the weakened state of America’s military, extremely stressed by Bush’s failed plan and lack of a coalition in Iraq, it would foolish to consider entering a war with Iran. It’s time we start engaging our enemies with intelligence and diplomacy.

Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra agreed today on CNN:

“I believe that reaching out and engaging with Iran, but doing so with Russia, doing so with our European allies, recognizing that they do have contacts into Iran, and engaging in a full-court diplomatic press with Iran is a good thing to begin the process of doing that.

You know, we’re not going to go into Iran militarily. … Iran is not Iraq. And going in there militarily would be, from my perspective, a huge mistake.”

Wow, what happened to cowboy diplomacy? We can see where that has gotten us.

Speaking of southern culture, NASCAR is in Talladega today, a track located about 15 minutes from where I grew up. There will likely be about 200,000 people at the race, most of them camping. There is nothing like Talladega, the 2.66 mile high banked tri-oval that features three wide racing at 200 mph. But Talladega is more than a race. It’s a culture. It’s like Woodstock in the Heart of Dixie. I remember in High School, how we always skipped school on the Friday of the time trials. We would all load up in a Jeep, and party all day in the infield. I remember one time we were in there doing doughnuts in our Jeep, waving our Confederate flag, and playing Luke Skywalker and 2 Live Crew on our radio for everybody to hear and be offended.

Law enforcement, which was mostly made up of County deputies that we all knew, escorted us out of there and told us to leave and never come back. Sure enough we were back later that night, spending all night out there cruising and enjoying the raised shirts that Talladega partying is known for.

I know it probably shocks you that a calm, laid back, family man like myself, once acted that way. I understand.

Anyway, I know I have already posted this video, but it is extremely appropriate for Talladega, home of the Earnhardt nation.

Oh yeah. Talladega is also known for this.

Posts like this one, and the attitude it represents, really piss me off. It’s like this. If you don’t like the south, then get the hell out. Nobody is preventing you from leaving. Nobody is making you stay. If our patriotism, low taxes, and belief in God offends you, then move somewhere else. If you don’t like Elvis, Hank Williams, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, then kiss our ass. If college football, NASCAR, or the right to bear arms, is too much for you to tolerate, then take your candy ass and move to Massachusetts.

I have been all over the country, and I have never walked into somebody else’s home state or region and insulted it. If I didn’t like a certain place, I sure as well wouldn’t live there. I’d leave. Why don’t you?

I always say nice things about the places I visit. Maybe it is because I am a pleasant person. Perhaps the reason people like William speak the verbal excrement that they do, is because they are miserable. That’s okay. They have a right to be miserable. But they also have a right to have their ass kicked. Maybe that’s what they need.

Sing it Ronnie.

From an interesting op/ed in Newsweek on how the conservative south has changed the face of American politics: “How the South won this Civil War” by Michael Hirsh.

Based on these trends, I’d say it’s not been a healthy direction for America. Hirsh cites the founding fathers, the Jefferson-Adams letters:

When Jefferson, in his letter of May 5, 1817, condemned the “den of the priesthood” and “protestant popedom” represented by Massachusetts’ state-supported church, he was speaking for both of them–the North and South poles of the revolution. Yet John McCain, even with the GOP nomination in hand, would never dare repeat his brave but politically foolhardy condemnation of the religious right in 2000 as “agents of intolerance.” Why? Because we have become an intolerant nation, and that’s what gets you elected.

And as a result you have this kind of shit in politics as Hirsh points out:

We must endure “lapel-pin politics” that elevates the shallowest sort of faux jingoism over who’s got a better plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. We have re-imported creationism into our political dialogue (in the form of “intelligent design”). Hillary Clinton panders shamelessly to Roman Catholics, who have allied with Southern Protestant evangelicals on questions of morality, with anti-abortionism serving as the main bridge.

Hirsh explains the irrational southern conservative hero worship of GW Bush:

In Bush there seems little trace left of the Eastern WASP sensibility into which he was born and educated, and which explains so much of his father’s far more moderate presidency. The younger Bush went to Andover, Yale and Harvard, but he rebelled against the ethos he learned there. The transformation is complete, right down to the Texas accent that no one else in his family seems to have.

And you can see where we are now as a result: seriously lacking leadership possessing sensibility, intelligence, prudence and the competence that moderate, balanced and diverse influences bring. Some might say it’s a culture war where a lack of knowledge coupled with religious fundamentalism, authoritarianism, isolationism, and bigotry have indelibly changed American politics. Hence the emergence of intolerance, the ‘white Christian party’ and the neo-cons. I shudder to think where we’d be right now if the Bush presidency had been successful in any measure. Fortunately, the jury is in on that.